Top Five Q&A Responses at Cuomo's Cabinet Meeting

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday morning held his first cabinet meeting this year to tout his campaign against sexual assault on college campuses and the expansion of universal pre-kindergarten. Afterwards, Cuomo took a variety of questions from the press corps for more than 25 minutes on subjects ranging from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s investigation to a post-Newtown shooting spike in contributions to the NRA. City & State identified five of the governor's top responses:

1. When asked why he did not include closing the LLC loophole in his five-point ethics plan, Cuomo said he only included reforms that were “indefensible” and that the LLC loophole has an argument against it. A reporter responded that the only argument he had heard was that it allows rich people to multiply their political contributions. Cuomo responded:

“Yeah, well that’s their argument. But there is an argument and that’s why it hasn’t happened.”

2. When told there are concerns that Cuomo and his administration are being targeted by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s federal investigation into corruption in Albany, the governor said:

“I hear a lot of things from a lot of people and you should be a little more discriminating, maybe, who you’re talking to and what you take to heart. We have said that we’re going to clean up the culture of Albany—and we have. There is no doubt that there is more disclosure today than ever before.”

3. While discussing ethics reforms, his book deal with the News Corporation was brought up. Cuomo last year wrote a memoir and has only disclosed how much income he gained from the book deal in annual increments.

“Well, just hang around next year and you’ll see the other payment. If you go to a different occupation, send me a letter and I’ll send it to you. ... It’s a book company that is News Corp. You know that company, you knows who owns it and it is a book deal. You come up with some theory how there was a conflict writing a book then we’ll talk about at that time.”

A story published Wednesday morning reported that News Corp. did, in fact, lobby his administration for various state initiatives before the book deal. Cuomo said he had “no idea” the company had every lobbied the state.

4. Why is state Sen. Jeff Klein included in the budget talks when he is no longer co-president of the state Senate?

“I’ve spoken to Sen. Skelos about it and he has a group that may be important to pass many of these items because you have a close number of votes in the Senate and he’s been working in partnership with Sen. Skelos and is still working in partnership with Sen. Skelos so that we would invite him.”

5. There has been a lot of coverage about Cuomo’s and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s working relationship. De Blasio was scheduled to testify at a budget hearing on Wednesday when Cuomo belatedly announced the cabinet meeting where he took questions at the same time as the mayor's testimony. Cuomo was asked if his choice of timing for the cabinet meeting was deliberate.

“Only a really twisted mind would come up with that one.”